Don Dean - American Hosta Society (AHS)€¦ · American Hosta Society E-Newsletter Page 1 Summer -...

American Hosta Society E-Newsletter Summer - August 2016

Presidents Message

Each season, mid-summer strikes me as a

time to reflect on what has already occurred

as well as on the things that lie ahead as the

days begin to become noticeably shorter. The

hot and humid days that seem to stretch on

forever are balanced with the reality that we

are now getting closer to snow and cold. This

contrasts with memories of the blissful spring

temps when the gardens were coming alive to

share their wonders day by day and week af-

ter week.

Numerous local and regional events as well as

the AHS National Convention in St. Louis

have filled the spring and early summer. Ad-

ditional engaging events are upon the horizon,

into this fall and beyond. Plans are currently

being finalized for events into 2017.

The AHS convention is an annual event that I

simply do not want to miss because these

events offer so much. The 2016 Convention

fulfilled and surpassed my hopes. Gardens

were inspiring. Speakers were informative.

The organization was flawless. Attendees

could not have asked for more welcoming

hospitality.

The St. Louis Convention offered large gar-

dens and small gardens with a variety of cap-

tivating design elements. Collections beyond

Don Dean AHS President

August, 2016

hosta included an extensive Japanese maple

collection. Two gardens featured hosta, but

also highlighted the results of the gardener’s

hybridizing of daylilies that cooperated by

displaying their colors at peak bloom. Each

garden welcomed attendees with a special

flare. The only downside side to the conven-

tion was that it had to end. Friends that had

gathered together parted ways until next year.

Be sure to check out this year’s Online Jour-

nal for detailed coverage. But … there IS next

year.

Conventions traditionally end with a preview

of the next year’s convention. The AHS has

the good fortune of having a few local organi-

zations that offer a return trip on each ten-

year anniversary. The Indianapolis Hosta So-

ciety is one such group. Jamie Street from In-

dianapolis gave a preview of next year’s con-

vention. She presented a full schedule of not

to be missed events that await the attendees.

Mark your calendars for June 7 – 10, 2017.

Look for much more detail coming in future

months.

August marks a time when hybridizers must

be prepared for fall by remembering to gather

data about plants. Registrations require a

clump and also leaf photo. A bloom photo is

desired as well. Photo opportunities of flow-

ers for mid-season and late season bloomers

still exist. Our plants have a time limit for

gathering data based upon the season. Regis-

trations received by November 1st will be

processed for inclusion in the print and elec-

tronic registration publications.

Why register a plant? Multiple biases exist for


me. First, as a retired educator, I value educa-

tion. From reading the detailed registrations

that included accurate parentage, I formed a

foundation for my own hybridizing. This

knowledge helped guide me in making my

own crosses to create new plants. Second, reg-

istration also becomes a record of the name

that is attached to the plant for historical pur-

poses. It is taking a step toward avoiding

plants with two names as well as a single name

applied to more than one plant. Less confusion

benefits many. Confusion can be rectified by

thorough details found within the registration

data such as leaf size, vein count, bloom de-

tails, etc. I encourage all those that are think-

ing of releasing a hosta from their garden to

consider registration for the purpose of educa-

tion, clarity, and for future reference when

word of mouth information is no longer avail-

able, in others words to preserve the history.

Electronic resources and events for hosta in-

volving the AHS also includes an Online Auc-

tion held annually in January. Any time now

until frost is a great time to take inventory and

consider possible donations for this auction.

The AHS Online Auction is open to both

members and non-members. Much more infor-

mation about this event will be coming as win-

ter approaches.

I should offer a note of clarification regarding

a popular electronic resource, the American

Hosta Society Facebook Group. This active

group has an abundance of photos and ongoing

postings, everything hosta, shade gardening

interest, and more to include upcoming hosta

events of interest to hosta fans. It was origi-

nally set up by an individual with a great idea

that caught hold and took off. It is not directly

managed by the AHS society, rather by admin-

istrators, both society members and non-

members.

Members are reminded to check the home

page for recent Members Only additions. One

item of note is the recent posting of business

reports and meeting minutes. There is also a

link for nominations being opened for a pend-

ing slate of officers. A chair and committee

has been formed that has begun its work. De-

tails of contacting and placing names into

nomination are found upon the AHS website.

Much more is left of this gardening season.

Wishing you many more gardening pleasures

in the coming months.

In service,

Don Dean AHS President


Rob Mortko AHS VP Conventions

Convention News

A big thank you to all our hosta friends in St. Louis for a wonderful 2016 AHS Conven-

tion. And now we look forward to our 2017 AHS Convention.

Mark your calendar for “Hosta Hysteria” on June 7-10, 2017. The Indianapolis Hosta So-

ciety will be hosting the 2017 AHS National Convention. The convention will be held at the

Wyndham Indianapolis West Hotel. New for this year will be an online registration feature and

an early bird registration bonus. Register by January 15th and receive a free convention t-shirt.

Enjoy great tour gardens (via tour buses), a hosta show, auction, vending, seminars, ban-

quets, plenty of hostatality and much much more. Watch the Indy convention website for more

details.

www.IndyHosta2017.com

Conventionally yours,

Rob Mortko AHS VP Conventions

http://www.IndyHosta2017.com


Joshua Spece AHS Web Editor-in-Chief

2016 AHS Popularity Poll

It’s time to cast your votes for the annual AHS Hosta Popularity Poll!

Take a stroll through your garden to refresh your memory of your favorite hostas, then log on

and vote.

Popularity Poll voting is only open to AHS members so once you are on the American Hosta So-

ciety website (www.hosta.org), click the “Members Only” tab along the top right side of the

page. You will then need to enter the member's password. The password is published in The

Hosta Journal. If you do not have your Journal handy, you can contact the AHS Membership

Secretary for the password. Once you enter the password, click “Login”.

You are now logged into the "Members Only" area of the website. You can access the Popularity

Poll voting page by hovering over the "Publications" tab, then clicking “Popularity Poll Voting”.

Once you are on the Popularity Poll voting page, scroll down to the bold heading that says

“Online Voting” and follow the instructions on the page to cast your votes.

It is very important to NOT press the Enter or Return key on your keyboard after you begin en-

tering your votes! Doing so will submit your ballot before it is complete. (Unfortunately, this is a

“feature” of the polling service the AHS uses and is beyond our control.)

You may also cast your votes by email. Simply send your votes to Bob Olson at thehostajour-

[email protected].

Anyone who has trouble voting is more than welcome to contact me for help!

Josh Spece AHS Web Editor-in-Chief

http://www.hosta.org

mailto:[email protected]



Slug Bait – Proper Application

By Rob Mortko

We live in a world of excess. “If a little is good, then more is better” has become the mindset of our culture. This attitude creeps into our gardening practices as well. As a result, fertilizers and pesticides are often over applied and/or misapplied because we simply fail to follow the labeled directions. The consequence is pollution to our environment and safety issues for our pets and wildlife as well as for us and our families.

While most everyone has tried various “home remedies” for slug control, most all of us have also sooner or later resorted to using commercial slug baits. But how often do we really read the labeled instructions before applying commercial slug baits?

The key to any pesticide is the active ingredient. That is what drives everything else stated on the label. Commercial slug baits contain one of two active ingredients: metaldehyde (up to about 4% by weight) or iron phosphate (about 1% by weight). There is actually now a third ac-tive ingredient being marketed as a slug bait and that is sulfur. Ortho recently changed the ac-tive ingredient on their “Bug-Geta” slug and snail killer from metaldehyde to sulfur, but kept the product name the same. Word of warning here – look at the active ingredient on the label, not the product name as chemical formulations do change.

The active ingredient in slug baits is documented to actually repel slugs. Therefore they rely on a bait as part of the inert ingredients to attract the slugs. This is typically a cereal/grain ma-terial or yeast. This is an important application point since slug bait does not form a barrier so much as it is simply an attractant.

Even best attempts to follow the label for proper slug bait application can be frustrating. Verbiage that states to “apply at X pounds per acre” do not mean much to any of us as typical backyard gardeners. We stop reading there before we even get to the part that says “Do not apply in piles”. This is most often the reason you hear about slug bait poisoning occurring with pets, wildlife or even humans.

It actually takes very, very, very little slug bait to do the job. (Please don’t miss the emphasis here.) Individual slug bait pellets should be spaced about 4 inches apart. That equates to only 9 pellets per square foot! Think about that. It is virtually impossible not to over apply if you shake the bait from its container. Even trying to broadcast by hand sprinkling will most likely be to ex-cess. You almost have to apply one pellet at a time. And I would be remiss if I didn’t point you to the labeled precautionary statement that will tell you to wear chemical resistant gloves.

The other key to success is when to reapply. Again follow the label, but most manufactures will say to reapply every 2 or 3 weeks. We often think about slug control in the spring because that is when conditions are most favorable (i.e. cloudy, rainy conditions) and we see the most slug damage. But slugs lay eggs in the fall. You can get ahead of the curve with a late summer/early fall application before they start laying eggs.

In summary, effective and proper slug bait control comes down to this – read the label. Ap-ply early and often, but ever so sparingly.


AHS Membership numbers have been hold-

ing firm for the past year or so and we all look forward to the opportunity to welcome

new friends to our ranks. As the excite-ment of spring begins to fade and the chores of summer take their toll, why not

take a break from the garden and give some thought to who might enjoy a mem-

bership in the American Hosta Society --- The Hosta Journal is the perfect read on a hot summer’s day! Remember: all new

AHS members receive a copy of The Hosta Adventure: A Grower’s Guide AND a $15

plant voucher which can be used at a con-siderable number of participating mail order nurseries! What a great gift for those gar-

deners in your life!**

Our new electronic membership is a great option for the spouses of AHS Life Members

who want to actively participate in the AHS, but don’t want the additional expense or duplicate publications of a standard mem-

bership! Or for anyone who wants to sim-plify and cut back on stacks of paper!

eMembership recipients receive the same welcome packet as regular members!

All AHS Memberships run from January 1 through December 31 regardless of when

an individual joins or renews. The year of your membership expiration immediately follows your name on the mailing sheet

which accompanies each paper publication you receive from the AHS. The second

Journal mailing of each year is always ac-companied by a renewal form.

It is important to keep the AHS Membership Secretary informed of changes in your con-

tact information. If you do not receive AHS

Sandie Markland AHS Membership Secretary

mailings due to an unreported change of

address, a $6.00 payment is required to cover the cost of shipping and handling for

the replacement issue. Please send address changes to [email protected] as promptly as possible.

Individuals who travel between summer and winter homes should advise the Mem-

bership Secretary of their change of ad-dress approximately 6 weeks in advance.

AHS Memberships make great gifts

for your gardening friends --- or great door prizes for your local club

events! It’s the perfect time of year to introduce your friends to the

American Hosta Society and our beautiful Hosta Journal!

Enjoy those lazy, hazy, crazy days

of summer!! May all your hosta dreams come true!!

Sandie Markland AHS Membership Secretary

**All memberships received prior to September

1, 2016, will be effective for this calendar year

(as of 01-01-16). Memberships received on or

after that date will be applied to calendar year

2017, but will receive the same membership

packet (minus the first issue of the 2016 print

Journal).




Cindy Deutekom

VP Genus Hosta

It was a pleasure to finally meet Dr. Parwinder Grewal in St. Louis. Parwinder has

agreed to write a summary of his talk on foliar nematodes from the National Convention for the

next The Hosta Journal! Following publication, it will be posted in the Members Only section

of the AHS website along with his slideshow.

I do have an update for those wishing to purchase Nemakill. ExcelAg, makers of Ne-

makill, are not in the business of selling to the general public and now have a distributor pur-

chasers need to go through. This should make ordering straight forward. Contact by email or

phone Kathy Lawrence, the Division Manager at The CISCO Companies in Indianapolis. Phone

number is 1-800-888-2986 X310 and her email is [email protected].

Cisco is only stocking the 1-quart size of Nemakill, l which is a $97.24 credit card pur-

chase plus tax and freight. If a group would like to buy a case of 12 quarts, a 20% discount will

be given.

ExcelAg does produce gallon containers of Nemakill - however, they have a 6 week turn

around on orders and anything Cisco does not stock would only be available on full case quanti-

ties. (4 in a case price for $387), plus tax and freight.

For those who have treated your hostas for nematodes using any product, those involved

in the research project would like to evaluate how your treatment has worked for you so that we

can offer further recommendations. Please refer to the previous eNews for information that

would benefit our assessment. My email is [email protected].

Cindy Deutekom

VP Genus Hosta




Cindy Tomashek

VP Member Services

AHS Society Plant UPDATE Many of you have received your shipment of H. ‘Sterling Medallion’ and some are await-ing the fall shipment, which will fulfill most of the orders that were received. Due to high de-mand, we have decided to continue shipment in 2017 in order to meet as many orders as possible. Thus, the third group of Hosta ‘Sterling Medallion’ will be available in spring of 2017. Orders for H. ‘Sterling Medallion’ are suspended until further notice. An announce-ment will be made next April or May with in-formation on how you can get your order in for this final group of plants if you missed out on the first shipments. If you sent an order with payment for the fall shipment and haven’t received a confirma-tion email, check your spam folder. While it was our hope to introduce a new plant each year, we are learning that may not be the case. As with all agricultural crops, Hostas don’t always respond as hoped when put into tissue culture. Patience will be re-quired, but be assured the next AHS Society Plant is in the lab. It’s too soon to know when we will have the inventory to release it, how-ever, so stay tuned for release of more details.

FREE AUCTION SOFTWARE Several societies have requested and re-ceived the Auction Software offered in the last E-newsletter as a courtesy of the Midwest Re-gional Hosta Society and AHS. Step by step in-structions written by Barb Schroeder and Floyd Rogers are included. The software has the abil-ity to print labels for pots and print receipts, along with record keeping, and tracking pay-ments. If you are interested in a copy, it will be provided "AS IS" - there are NO support ser-vices for learning or use of the program. To re-ceive the FREE AUCTION SOFTWARE (via

email as a zip file) along with complete in-structions, please contact Barbara Schroeder ([email protected]). Mary Arnberg, Newsletter Editor Coordi-nator ([email protected] ), is the Newsletter Editor contact for reporting email changes/updates. Remember to copy all NLE’s when an editor change takes place in your club. Susan Hedrick, AHS Club Liaison Chair, [email protected], is the con-tact for local society Presidents. She will as-sist you with updates or corrections for the local societies Presidents data base. Also, please check your society’s website link on the AHS web site periodically and provide new information in a timely manner or alert us to problems with the link. P lease cont ac t me , pres [email protected], if you have suggestions for improving member services. AHS strives to bring you the most comprehensive and up-to-date information about Hostas and Hosta-related activities and we need your input to make sure we are accomplishing that goal. Sow some excitement today and invite friends to join you at your next local or re-gional event, and be sure to have them check out AHS by visiting our web site, www.amer i canhos tasociety .org or www.hosta.org. Having missed this year’s fabulous convention in St. Louis, and miss-ing the opportunity to connect with long-time friends, I’m already looking forward to 2017 in Indianapolis.

Cindy Tomashek VP Member Services

[email protected]





http://www.americanhostasociety.org

http://www.hosta.org


AHS Membership The American Hosta Society (AHS) is a society dedicated to the study and improvement of the genus Hosta and the dis-semination of general and scientific knowledge about hostas. There are many benefits for the members that result from these efforts, both social and in nursery trade. AHS members receive several publications a year, including two colorful issues of The Hosta Journal (mailed), four eNews-

letters (emailed), and The Online Journal (posted on the web for members only). All of these include articles on cultivation tips, propagation techniques, landscape uses, new cultivars and old species, pioneers and personalities, scientific ad-vances, convention awards and gardens and news about the AHS.

Other membership benefits: Another benefit of becoming a new member is you receive a voucher from the AHS Membership Secretary good for $15.00 towards any purchase at sponsoring nurseries. Go to

http://www.americanhostasociety.org/Membership/AHSVoucherProgram.htm Go to http://www.americanhostasociety.org/Membership/Membership.htm to join online or print the membership application and mail to the Membership Sec-retary listed.

An opportunity to attend national meetings and conventions which of-fer educational and scientific presentations, garden tours, judge's clinics, and a chance to see the latest and best hosta in the hosta show.

A Biennial AHS Membership Directory

The privilege of visiting display gardens throughout the country, many of which are only open to AHS members.

An invitation to exhibit your favorite hostas and compete for recognition in various AHS national and regional hosta shows.

Developing friendships with people who share an interest in growing hostas.

Access to Members Only section of the AHS website

http://www.americanhostasociety.org/Membership/AHSVoucherProgram.htm

http://www.americanhostasociety.org/Membership/Membership.htm

Don Dean - American Hosta Society (AHS)€¦ · American Hosta Society E-Newsletter Page 1 Summer -...

Documents

Transcript of Don Dean - American Hosta Society (AHS)€¦ · American Hosta Society E-Newsletter Page 1 Summer -...